CapitaLand focuses on affordable housing market share

The new business unit, CapitaValue Homes, will focus on developing well-designed and

affordable homes in these two countries.

Through CapitaValue Homes, CapitaLand has extended its core residential business to include affordable housing, which caters  to homebuyers whose mortgage capacity  to purchase homes are pegged  to about 40 per cent of  the household  income  level  in  that particular city.

The group has an extensive geographical reach in both China and Vietnam, possesses valuable domain knowledge and enjoys strong network with the local authorities and real estate professionals in the two countries. 

Liew  Mun  Leong,  president  and chief executive officer  of  CapitaLand  Group, said the group set  up CapitaValue Homes  to meet  the  real, non-speculative demand  for affordable homes  in China and Vietnam.

“Affordable housing has tremendous growth potential in these two countries due to their rapid massive urbanisation. For a start, CapitaValue Homes has identified two sites, one each in China and Vietnam, as its maiden projects,” he said.

The affordable homes will have a more standardised design with a different set of specifications and design approach compared to the mid - to high-end homes that the developer have been building in its core markets, according to the developer.

CapitaValue Homes chief executive officer Chen Lian Pang said the company would also exploit industrial construction technology to save time and cost for these projects.

“We are looking to build homes that are likely to be about 90 square metres in size for the China market and about 60 to 70 square metres in size for the Vietnam market.

We will work closely with the local authorities to manage the land cost so that the selling prices would be affordable to our homebuyers, with mortgage repayment pegged at approximately 40 per cent of the average income level in that particular city,” he said. 

CapitaLand signed a conditional joint venture agreement on October 28, 2010 with local

developer No Va Land Investment to jointly develop a residential site in District 9 in Ho Chi Minh City, an established populous area that is well-served by amenities such as a

supermarket and planned sports and recreational facilities.

The approximately 9,000-square-metre site, located at the fringe of the city centre, enjoys

convenient access via the future Ho Chi Minh-Long Thanh Highway and Hanoi Highway. It is also within close proximity to the proposed Saigon Sport City and Saigon Golf Mixed-used Development projects, as well as Ho Chi Minh Vocational College of Technology and Saigon Hightech Park.

CapitaValue Homes, as the lead project developer for the site, plans to develop it into a

residential development with approximately 500 apartments.

>> CapitaLand signs JV agreement for fifth residential project in Vietnam